Exclusive: Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil on Their Rise to the Top, and Saying Goodbye

Yesterday Motley Crue confirmed that they will embark on one final world tour before ending their career. At the press conference announcing this trek, they even signed a first of its kind ‘Cessation of Touring’ contract that apparently prevents them from getting back together, just to show how serious they are.

Bassist Nikki Sixx and singer Vince Neil were kind enough to speak to us for a few minutes at this big (and somewhat sad) event. They shared their memories of the group’s remarkable rise to the top, and gave fans some idea of what they can expect on the upcoming tour.

The tour is a celebration of your music and history, but it’s also for the fans. Can you talk about what it means for the fans that have supported you over the years and if you’ll be doing anything special on this tour?

Vince Neil: Just like every tour it’s going to be over the top and crazy, good music. That’s why we’re bringing [opening act] Alice Cooper with us. He fits right in that mold with us with the theatrics and the great songs. So, I’m excited for this tour and the fans will be too. It’s bittersweet for the fans, it’ll be the last one where they can see Motley. I guess life goes on.

What does it mean to have someone like Alice Cooper to come and open the show?

Nikki Sixx: When I was a kid, these guys were all playing guitars and this other kid had a drum kit and we went to his house. I remember walking into his garage and he had this huge poster of Alice and he had the snake wrapped around his neck and the gothic makeup. I was like, what the hell is that? He goes, “It’s Alice Cooper.” I’ve been hooked ever since. His music first and foremost is the thing I listen to, but his performances, like Motley Crue, are over the top.

Throughout your career, there have been great tours and albums. For each of you personally, is there an album/tour cycle that was the most rewarding creatively and personally?

Vince Neil: Probably ‘Girls, Girls, Girls.’ We had just finished up our ‘Theater of Pain’ thing which was cool, but then it was a little too slick. We kind of got grungy for ‘Girls, Girls, Girls.’ We all had street biker gang gear. That tour was mine.

Nikki Sixx: It still didn’t feel like we were one of the biggest bands in the world, we were still fighting for that crown during ‘Girls, Girls, Girls.’ By the time we hit ‘Dr. Feelgood,’ all bets were off. We had arrived. We did a lot of work to get there. I think it was hard for us, for as much work as we’d put into ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ we knew that album was a No. 1 album. But with payola, we were cheated out of our No. 1 record. Whitney Houston debuted at No. 1 [instead], and I think at that moment we said that was never going to happen to us again. We decided to make one of the greatest records of our career. We hunkered down for, God how long were we in Vancouver?

Vince Neil: Nine months.

Nikki Sixx: Nine months, just working and re-writing lyrics and re-doing vocals. Working, working, working so no one could ever take that away from us, and we got our No. 1. I like to call it our second No. 1 record!

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